Report 1996: A Week in the Faroe Islands

By Eleanor from UK, Spring 2007

Trip Description: Mention the Faroe Islands to most people and you get a blank look. A few recognise the name from the shipping forecast. They are a small group of islands between Scotland and Iceland which belong to Denmark, but are self governing.
This is a report of a week spent exploring the islands in 2007.

Page 1 of 8: Background to the Trip

Kirkjubøur, with the islands of Koltur and Vágar

Many years ago I read an article about the Faroe Islands in the Daily Telegraph travel section, which had pictures of wooden houses with turf roofs set in stunning scenery. I added them to my list of places to visit. We always thought they would be difficult and expensive to get to. We were on holiday in Shetland and in those days Smyril Line ran a ferry service between Denmark, Norway, Shetland, Faroe and Iceland. Faroe suddenly shot to the top of the list, especially as we could combine it with a trip to Iceland as well. Using the ferry also had the great advantage that we could take our car with us.

We spoke to the Smyril office in Lerwick who said they could arrange the ferry crossing and accommodation for us. We decided to spend a week in Faroe, followed by two weeks in Iceland. By the time we were ready to book, Smyril had a special offer on fares so the holiday worked out lot cheaper than expected. We decided to base ourselves in Tórshavn and to self cater. This worked out very well and we had a delightful bottom floor flat in a house on the edge of Tórshavn overlooking fields with sheep.

We decided we would spend our time exploring the islands of Streymoy, Vágar and Eysturoy as tunnels joined them. In the time available we decided not to attempt to visit the other islands as we had read dire warnings about getting stuck on them due to sudden bad weather.

We visited in the last week of May. This was a bit early in the year but was determined by the two weeks in Iceland, which we wanted to leave before 15th June as this is when the season really starts. Given a free choice we would pick mid June.

When we arrived there was snow to sea level and it was sleeting, windy and bitterly cold. Not the best of welcomes. We knew Faroe weather could be ‘iffy’ as they get a lot of low clouds and mist. The next day started dull but then cleared into a beautiful day and the rest of the week was great, sunshine and bright blue skies. We could see the grass getting greener during the week. Spring is compressed here and it seemed strange seeing daffodils, tulips and bluebells in flower in the gardens all at the same time.

We had a marvellous week and loved the islands. You do need to like nothingness as apart from the scenery there are few ‘attractions’ on the islands.

They get many Danish tourists but few others. Unfortunately Smyril now only runs a service between Denmark, Faroe and Iceland. The alternative is to fly and then hire a car.